Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness continues its distinction as a world-class health and wellness agency with one unified vision of informing and influencing today’s contributors to an individual’s health and wellness decisions. The agency’s mission is to inspire and promote change by unearthing a universal human truth that’s living in every brand. Known for its innate understanding of consumer health trends that influence purchasing, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness continued to see growth in their business, and that of their clients, executives say.

“Our agency recognizes that today’s CMOs are under mounting pressure to keep pace with increasing demand for wellness products and brand services that help consumers live better,” says JD Cassidy, managing director. “We blend expertise in healthcare brands with an acute understanding of consumer behavior and desires, and look at brands holistically, providing interconnected and innovative solutions.”

“Our approach revolves around driving marketing inventions that enable brands to do more to support the wellbeing of their customers,” says Kathy Delaney, global chief creative officer. “This focus allows us to turn the new reality of the rapidly changing healthcare marketplace into an advantage for clients, and really change the way that brands and people work as one to promote greater wellbeing.”

The Year’s Accomplishments

Agency executives say 2013 was a year of tremendous growth and exciting changes at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness. Recognizing a gap in the market for one agency that provides a holistic approach to healthcare and wellness, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness and Saatchi & Saatchi Health Communications joined forces, and now operate as one entity under the former name. In addition, Heartbeat Ideas, one of the largest and most highly regarded digital agencies in the healthcare communications space, joined Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness to form a wholly new market player with what executives believe is unmatched strength and depth.

Heartbeat Ideas and its sister agency, Heartbeat West, operate under the names “Heartbeat Ideas, a member of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness” and “Heartbeat West, a member of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness.”

Heartbeat was founded in 1998 and employs a team of 90 members between its New York and California offices. According to agency executives, whether in mobile, social or online branding campaigns, Heartbeat’s work has led to measurably superior results for a broad range of world-class healthcare brands. Heartbeat’s clientele includes Galderma, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, Teva, and XenoPort.

Each agency – Saatchi & Saatchi Health Communications, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, and Heartbeat Ideas/Heartbeat West – has been a market leader in their individual disciplines, executives say. They add that the combination is a true powerhouse in the health and wellbeing space, and is led by a new inspired leadership team.

Heartbeat Founder and CEO Bill Drummyremains at the helm of Heartbeat and is part of the leadership team at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, along with Delaney and Cassidy.

In 2013, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness focused on growth from current clients, such as Pfizer, Merial with Nexgard and global new products, Novartis with Extavia, and added important new clients such as Daiichi Sankyo.

Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness further strengthened its commitment to modern marketing in 2013. Under Delaney’s vision and leadership, the agency delivered some of its most innovative work ever that is helping people lead better lives, such as a pro bono campaign for Crossroads Community Services at St. Bart’s in New York.

Beyond client work and strategic moves to enhance its digital bench strength, the agency also invested heavily in driving the conversation around creativity, digital health innovations and consumer insights. Delaney was named the first-ever jury president for the inaugural Cannes Lions Health festival, the new two-day festival and awards celebrating creative communications in pharma, healthcare and wellness, taking place June 13-14, 2014, in Cannes. She will lead the health and wellness jury, judging consumer products and education and services campaigns.

Also this year, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness participated in the SXSW Interactive festival, hosting a panel discussion on the health and wellness implications of sedentary lifestyles, particularly how people can harness digital to make positive changes for more active lives.

The agency’s focus on using emerging tech and digital to help people proactively lead longer, healthier lives also translated into speaking engagements at Ad:Tech New York, Silvers Summit at CES and Digital Health Summers Summit, and articles in Forbes, Fast Company and The Agency Post.

In addition, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness extended this legacy of thought leadership in creative circles, with honors from some of the industry’s most revered award shows. The agency, along with Chattem, earned a Gold MM&M Award for Best Branded Website for Consumers for its work on Allegra.com. It was also a finalist in the Best Corporate Marketing Campaign category for the American Heart Association and “Go Red for Women,” and in Best TV Advertising Campaign for AstraZeneca’s ‘“Doctor Doing Your Job’ (DDYJ) TV Campaign” (Nexium). Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness was awarded three Silver trophies from the W3 Awards; the Best Micro Film at the 2014 One Screen Film Festival for its work for Crossroads Community Services at St. Bart’s; the 55th annual Communication Arts annual illustration competition; and was a finalist for Best Branded TV Campaign (Large Brand) for Nexium.

Structure And Services

This positive momentum is the result of the company sticking to its plan to differentiate itself in the health and wellness” space – defined by the agency as brands or businesses that want to do more to support the wellness and happiness of their consumers.

Executives say today, the world starts with digital, and the agency’s growth in this area has been key to performance. But agency leaders know that digital is only as powerful as the content behind it, which engages consumers and produces the data and technologies that drive even better performance. To this end, agency teams integrate data and analytics, strategic insights, content creation, and back-end digital production into its cross-functional teams.

Virtually all of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness’ clients hire them to do more than just traditional advertising. The agency strives to recruit a differentiated talent base that is proficient in three areas: digital, relationship management, and traditional advertising. Whether its staff arrives with this skill set or gets trained to work across disciplines, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness is able to deliver clients smart, cross-platform solutions that drive measurable growth, executives say.

“Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness’ goal is being its clients’ best supplier, regardless of category, because the agency believes better service creates an environment that offers sharper thinking and better work,” agency leaders say.

The agency meets this goal by fielding its own client surveys outside of regular client reviews – and sharing the findings with each client – as well as placing a premium on delivering innovative thinking outside of the rigors of day-to-day projects.

Future Plans

The agency’s 2014 plan is to continue to build the agency’s position in leading Rx and healthcare brands, with a strong emphasis on digital and RM solutions. Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness will also seek to strengthen its roster in the broader categories – from retail to hospitality to petcare and more – that want to do more to support their customers’ health and wellbeing.

Philanthropy/Citizenship

Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness continues its involvement in a wide array of philanthropic efforts, ranging from fundraising for the American Heart Association, branding work for Read Ahead, a New York–based literacy/mentoring organization, and the Child Center of NY.

The agency has made its pro bono work for Crossroads Community Services an agency-wide philanthropic effort.

Combining its role in local charities with a passion for maintaining an active lifestyle, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness staff also participated in the Wall Street Run & Heart Walk to raise the awareness of heart disease and stroke prevention.